The subfamily Spartaeinae (Salticidae) currently includes 19 extant
and five fossil genera (Wanless 1984a; Rodrigo & Jackson 1992; Zabka
& Kovac 1996; Zhang et al. 2006), all being confined to the Old
World. The majority of the 130 spartaeine species described to date (see
Platnick 2009) remain known from a few specimens and from one or two
localities. The aims of this study are: (1) to (re)describe three poorly
known sparateine species from tropical Africa; (2) to describe
previously unknown sexes for three species; and (3) to provide
additional faunistic records for seven other species.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This work is based mainly on specimens of jumping spiders recently
collected from various regions of Africa. A total of 70 specimens
belonging to 12 species has been (re)examined. All specimens were
studied in ethanol and thus the given description of colours refers to
the preserved specimens. All drawings were made with the aid of a
reticular eyepiece attached to an MBS-10 stereomicroscope. All digital
images were taken with the aid of a Zeiss microscope and combined using
the helicon Focus software. Both drawings and digital images were then
edited in Adobe Photoshop and arranged in igure plates.

The sequence of leg segments in measurement data is as follows:
femur + patella + tibia + metatarsus + tarsus. For the leg spination the
system adopted is that used by Ono (1988). All measurements are in mm.
Only references to the original descriptions and/or to reliable sources
of identification are provided. For a complete set of taxonomic
references, see Platnick (2009).

TAXONOMY

Genus Cyrba Simon, 1876

Cyrba is a small genus consisting of 11 valid species (Platnick
2009), of which the majority (nine species) are known from the
Afrotropical region (Wanless 1984b; Platnick 2009). Here we provide
additional faunistic records for four species, redescribe C. lineata and
describe the unknown male for C. nigrimana.

Distribution: To date, the species has been known only from South
Africa (Wanless 1984b; Wesolowska & Haddad 2009; present work).

Comments: The species has an easily recognizable epigyne,
particularly the acute lobes of its rear edge and a pair of well-marked
epigynal pockets (see Wanless 1984b, figs 13F, G). The samples examined
by us contain both sexes collected together and therefore we are able to
confirm the synonymy of C. armata Wesolowska, 2006 with C. lineata
proposed by Wesolowska & Haddad (2009; cf. Figs 6-9 and figs 3-5 in
Wesolowska 2006).

Comments: Until now, this species has been reported as being known
from the female only and from a few localities in South Africa (Wanless
1984b; Wesolowska & Haddad 2009). Caporiacco (1947) reported a
single male of C. nigrimana collected from East Africa (Pangani), but
provided no illustration or description of this male. It remains unclear
how the latter author could match the single male he studied with C.
nigrimana described from a single female by Simon (1900). The problem of
what species was reported by Caporiacco under the name C. nigrimana
requires further attention.

[FIGURES 14-16 OMITTED]

The male of C. nigrimana (Figs 17-20) is most similar (almost
identical) to that of Cyrba boveyi, described by Lessert (1933) from a
single male and redescribed on the basis of both sexes by Wanless
(1984b, figs 10A-L). The latter author only provisionally matched the
male of C. boveyi with the female from Kenya, which was selected because
of its 'most unusual epigyne' (Wanless 1984b: 465). The males
of both species seem to differ in the slightly different shape of the
tibial apophysis and of the sclerotied lobe M2 (sensu Wanless 1984a).
Furthermore, the male of C. boveyi has its body covered with bright
orange hairs (see Wesolowska & Haddad 2009, fig. 238), as in C.
simoni, whereas the male of C. nigrimana is otherwise (Figs 14, 15). We
have matched the male and females of C. nigrimana on the basis of their
virtually identical body colouration (Figs 14-16). However, this
matching must be considered provisional until a sample containing both
sexes has been collected.

Distribution: This is a widespread Afrotropical species, known from
Nigeria and Cameroon to Tanzania and Angola in the south (Wanless 1984b;
Wesolowska & Russell-Smith 2000).

Genus Holcolaetis Simon, 1886

This is a small Afrotropical genus of eight described species
(Platnick 2009), confined to the Afrotropical region except for the
single species H. dyali Roewer, 1951, known from Pakistan (Lahor: Gol
Bagh; see Dyal 1935). According to Wanless (1985: 255), the record by
Dyal (1935: 222, sub H. vidua Lessert, 1927) was based on
misidentification. Yet the taxonomic status and validity of the species
name H. dyali remain obscure and require further attention. The genus
Holcolaetis was included in the Spartaeinae by Rodrigo and Jackson
(1992).

Distribution: The species is known from South Africa northwards to
Tanzania (Wanless 1985; Wesolowska & Haddad 2009; present data).

Genus Meleon Wanless, 1984

This Afrotropical genus currently consists of eight described
species (Platnick 2009), occurring from Guinea in the west to Madagascar
in the east.

The composition of Meleon requires further study, as the genus
seems to be a paraphyletic taxon. According to Wijesinghe (1994), Meleon
should consist of only three species: M. guineensis (Berland &
Millot, 1941), M. solitaria (Lessert, 1927) and M. kenti (Lessert,
1925); the last is the type species. M. madagascarensis and M. russata,
as stated by Wiesinghe (1994), belong elsewhere. The same seems to hold
true for two new Meleon species recently described by Logunov and
Azarkina (2008), viz. M. insularis and M. raharisonina, as both are
closely related to M. madagascarensis. The problem of the taxonomic
status and composition of Meleon is outside the scope of the present
work and will be considered properly elsewhere by one of us (DL).

Distribution: This species has been recorded from tropical West
Africa: Guinea, Ivory Coast, Congo (Wiesinghe 1994; present data).

Comments: Wijesinghe (1994: 59) only provisionally matched the
[female] holotype of M. guineensis and the [male] reported by Wanless
(1984a: 187-189) as Meleon solitaria. We have examined the sample
containing both sexes, and therefore this sex association can be
conirmed.

Colouration (Fig. 40): Carapace brown, covered with white hairs,
with white ocular area and black around eyes. Clypeus pale yellow,
covered with white hairs and bristles. Chelicerae brown-yellow. Sternum
yellow. Abdomen yellow, but dorsum with a small dark patch in middle
part. All legs yellow, but tibiae and metatarsi I and II brown. Palpal
structure as in Figs 42-45.

Comments: To date, the species is known from the type specimens and
from Madagascar only. It was Wijesinghe (1994) who matched the male of
Portia madagascarensis with the female of P. oreophila and thereby
provided the current conception of the species. The species is
redescribed here on the basis of the type specimens.

Comments: This species was recently described after a single male
from Madagascar by Logunov and Azarkina (2008). In new samples taken
from the NE part of Madagascar we have found both sexes together. The
female of M. raharizonina is described here for the irst time.

Both the male and female of M. raharizonina are most similar to
those of M. madagascarensis (Figs 40, 41, 42-47, 53-56). The male can
easily be distinguished by the shape of massive tibial apophysis
(Logunov & Azarkina 2008, figs 29-31). The female differs in having
shorter inseminations ducts and transverse, slit-shaped copulation
openings (vs V-shaped ones inM. madagascarensis; cf. Figs 48 and 55).

Comments: The finding of the male of M. russata (Figs 27, 57-63),
so long after the [female] holotype, allows us to comment on the
species' taxonomic assignment. The palp conformation of M. russata,
particularly the shape and position of the embolus and the sclerotized
lobe M2 (sensu Wanless 1984a, fig. 27G), is almost identical to that of
Veissella milloti (Logunov & Azarkina 2008, figs 107-111). Both
species differ from each other in details of mutual arrangement and size
of the embolus and the sclerite M2, as well as in the shape of tibial
apophysis (cf. Figs 57-59). Yet, V. milloti was only provisionally
placed in the genus Veissella (Logunov & Azarkina 2008: 113), as the
species has no process on the palpal femur and patella, the key
diagnostic character of Veissella (see Wanless 1984a).

There is no doubt that both M. russata, known from Madagascar, and
V. milloti, known from the Comoros, belong to the same genus, but
whether it should be Meleon, Veissella or a separate genus remains to be
further studied. On the one hand, the female of M. russata does not
possess the median epigynal guide, another key character of Veissella
(see Wanless 1984a, fig. 27E). Yet, as was stressed by Wijesinghe (1994:
59), M. russata differs from the true Meleon species in the proile of
its carapace and the very short copulatory ducts. Thus, it is very
likely that M. russata and V. milloti should be placed in a genus of its
own, separated both from true Meleon (sensu Wiesinghe 1994) and from
Veissella.

Comments: This [female] cannot be reliably identified or described
as a new species. On the basis of its copulatory organs (Fig. 70), it is
most close to, but clearly distinct from, M. solitaria (sensu Wijesinghe
1994). It can be easily distinguished from the [female] holotype of P.
solitaria by the ovoid shape of the spermathecae (cf. Figs 71, 72 and
figs 4-6 in Wijesinghe 1994). However, the current conception of the
latter species is based on the assumption that the [female] holotype of
Portia solitaria from Zaire and the [male] holotype of Portiafalsifera
Wanless, 1978 from Uganda belong to the same species (see Wijesinghe
1994: 60). On the contrary, it is very likely that our [female] from
Uganda and the [male] holotype of P. falsifera belong to the same taxon.
If so, the latter name should be revalidated and removed from the
synonymy with M. solitaria. Thus, the studied [female] belongs either to
M. falsifera or to a new species. The matter can be inally decided when
a sample of M. falsifera with both sexes has been collected.

[FIGURES 70-72 OMITTED]

Genus Portia Karsch, 1878

The genus Portia consists of 17 described species (Platnick 2009),
distributed mostly in the Afrotropical and Oriental regions (Wanless
1978, 1984a; Murphy & Murphy 1983), but also in the southern regions
of the Palaearctic region (Jastrzebski 1997; Song et al. 1999). Here we
provide new faunistic records for two Afrotropical species of Portia.

Distribution: This is a widespread central African species, known
from Ivory Coast and Ghana (present data) in the west to Ethiopia in the
east (Wesolowska & Tomasiewicz 2008), and southward to Angola and
Zambia (Wanless 1978).

Distribution: The species is known from tropical Africa, from
Guinea in the west to Madagascar in the east (Murphy & Murphy 1983;
Logunov & Azarkina 2007; Wesolowska & Cumming 2008; Wesolowska
& Haddad 2009; present data).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to express our warmest thanks to Dr R. Jocque (MRAC), Dr B.
Huber (ZFMK), and Ms P. Marais (NCA) for giving access to their
collections. Special thanks go to Mr J.-P. Michiels (MRAC), who kindly
sorted out the Spartaeinae for one of us (GA). We are much obliged to Dr
A. Dippenaar-Schoeman (NCA) and Dr S. Foord (University of Venda) for
their help in obtaining access to the salticid collections of the NCA.
Dr W. Wesolowska (Wroclaw, Poland) and an anonymous referee are thanked
for their critical comments that helped us to improve the manuscript.

WANLESS, F.R. 1978. A revision of the spider genus Portia (Araneae:
Salticidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (NaturalHistory), Zoology
series 34 (3): 83-124.

--1984a. A review of the spider subfamily Spartaeinae nom. n.
(Araneae: Salticidae) with descriptions of six new genera. Bulletin
ofthe British Museum (Natural History), Zoology series 46 (2): 135-205.

--1984b. A revision of the spider genus Cyrba (Araneae: Salticidae)
with the description of a new presumptive pheromone dispersing organ.
Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology series 47 (7):
445-481.

--1985. A revision of the spider genera Holcolaetis and Sonoita
(Araneae: Salticidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History),
Zoology series 48 (4): 249-278.

WESOLOWSKA, W. 2006. A new species of Cyrba from South Africa
(Araneae: Salticidae: Spartaeinae). Genus 17 (4): 617-620.

WESOLOWSKA, W. & CUMMING, M.S. 2008. Taxonomy and natural
history of a species rich assemblage of jumping spiders (Araneae;
Salticidae); a long-term study of a suburban site in Zimbabwe. Annales
Zoologici (Warszawa) 58 (1): 167-230.